SPECIAL METER:
The blue meter below the health bar is your special meter. this meter governs special moves, evading, air tech and can even effect blocking.
* blocking doesnt take any meter when you block but you need meter to block. if you run out of meter you cannot block untill at least a SMALL sliver of meter returns which doesnt take long at all.
* when the meter is full you cannot air tech.. to airtech you need a little less then 1/4 of meter.
* when the meter is full you cannot evade at all.
* different specials take up more/less meter depending on the move, if it was charged, etc.. same deal.. no or low meter = no specials.

EVADING:
To evade hold L2(block/tracking) and tap J or J and a direction. doing this will have you evade attacks and projectiles. careful though, this takes meter.

AIR TECHING:
You air tech by tapping J while in the air BUT you cannot air block so after you tech you can be hit and this is where tech setups come in. a BASIC example would be: ANY time there is an air combo and the opponant goes to follow up you can air tech and get away. if the opponent air techs but u jump and dely, your attack/throw you will hit them if you time the air tech. if someone air tech FAST on a HIGH launch then its bad news for them ...

SHORT JUMP:
this is just like ssb. tapping J quickly will cause your jump to not go as high.

SHORT JUMP ATTACKS:
done by taping J~ then another attack/throw FAST. example: when both opponents are on the ground if you QUICKLY tap J~T you will jump and air throw the opponent and it gives you the same throw as an air combo throw ender which allows u to throw opponents farther and into more hazards,walls, etc instantly. this tactic is great and its 100%safe. there is no GUARANTEED punishment for wiffing J~ with a throw. if u miss, it u can evade, jump, etc from incoming attacks. if u miss, it u can evade, jump, etc from incoming attacks but remember that the evade takes meter and if u jump and your opponent knows it they can jump and intercept with an air combo. with certain characters J~1 and J~3 are too strong. if J~1 hits its a combo same with J~3. if they block J~1 or J~3 a throw is guaranteed. if J~1 or J~3 wiffs and u throw cancel and they try to jump or punish the wiff from the front, you will throw them. this tactic is one of the keys to the game. not every character can use this tactic however.

THROW CANCELING AIR ATTACKS FROM SHORT JUMP:
J~ any attack button will make you quick jump with air combo attacks. if you wiff the attack you can cancel with a throw and then the same conditions that i wrote in the above section apply. Liu Kang, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Kitana all have air power moves that dont hit the ground. for these characters you can J~3 if it wiffs throw.

JABS AND INTERRUPTS:
jabs are the basic pokes in this game. 1... 11... 111... etc.. you can interrupt any character after 111.

JAB CANCEL:
you can cancel jabs with jumping and/or evade. 1~J/evade, 11~J/evade, 111~J/evade, etc... on block you MUST evade because you will get hit out of your jump. evade takes special meter so dont abuse this too much.

THROWS:
throws cannot be blocked. you can throw after attacks, so.. whats to stop jabs to grabs??? you can interrupt all jab(s) to grab attempts.

SPECIAL THROWS:
special throws have you grab the opponent or jump on their back. at this time you can tap any attack button.

WHILE RUNNING ATTACKS:
tapping an attack or throw button while running executes different attacks depending on the button. running 1 will do a quick running strike, running 2 will do a running launcher, running 3 will do a running power move, and running T will do a running throw. now with running 1.. when you are running and tap 1 while at least 1 and a half to 2 character lengths away from the opponent and it hits, it will cause them to stumble over a little and guarantees a combo.

CORNER STUFF:
anytime a power move hits the opponent with their back to the wall a throw is guaranteed.

5. SCORPION:
111T(wait) T on wakeup(opponent must use meter and evade or the second throw will hit)
111~J~1113~T
111 111~J~1113
111 111~J~111~T
111 1112~J~111~T
111~2~J~1113~T
J~3 111~J~111~T
J~3 111~J~111~3
1112~S3~1112~1113~T(only guaranteed if opponent has no meter and cannot tech)
111 111 111 111 111 111 111....(guaranteed if opponent has no meter and will continue until they get enough meter to tech)
111 111 111~J~1113~T(only guaranteed if opponent has no meter and cannot tech)

AIR TECH TRAPS:
right now i only really have one useful one and its with liu kang... after running 3 do J~12 12 1~T. the 1 always wiffs when they tech but the 2 hits. if they keep teching then by the time this combo ends they will be out of meter. if they dont air tech then 12 12 1~T is STILL guaranteed only the 1s actually hit. if you get them trained and they dont air tech do 1112 then they'll probably tech then 12 1~T.. they lose some meter still and you get more damage. if you train them to not tech at all do 1112 1112 1~T for RIDICULOUS life.

Sub-Zero's slide is also a good tech setup. when the slide hits if they dont air tech right away then a air combo is guaranteed. because they have to tech so fast if you wait just a millisecond before you air combo you will with them in a tech catch.

This is good stuff. I finally have this game and have been playing it nonstop. I only had one controller while in Florida, so i would just test stuff vs cpu shang. I've seen a few things. First being that ive seen the 3rd hit in 111 being tech'd. It lists in this guide that it is not techable.

Secondly, you mention air techs only work with 1/4th meter? I didnt know that. I thought you needed meter period to evade/tech.

Lastly, i may have some groundbreaking stuff in this guide that is not covered. If 111 is guarenteed, then techs will be obsolete with this find. What is the deal with sub 11 freeze repeat? this is a straight up infinite, correct? Same as scorpion 11 spear? (I only have sub scorp kung and liu unlocked). Also, these special techs i see the computer do (sub does a clone tech, reptile disappears in air, etc) are only possible by the cpu? If so, then techs are really not that good.

My own strats with the game (remember im only a few days in):

1. Evade > Block: Tom says not to use evades too much, but in my opinion, you want to rely on evades until youre down to 1/4th of your meter. You can always evade backwards to create enough time/space to regain your meter. Blocking is more of a quick reflex type of thing, say for instance, if you evade but dont know which direction to evade to, you can just block. Evade is waaaaay too good, like sensemove in metroid other m. Tom has already mentioned 1~evade etc. Evade has 100% invincability frames. Way too good. Knowing which way to evade to is to me, the most important aspect as of now to the game.

This game is unreal.. needs to be played ALOT more.

2. Air tech traps: Kangs is too good at the moment, but these rarely ever come up and are hard to setup (for me they are, but Tom mentions one of lius that isnt, i just dont know the exact inputs for everything yet)

Tested out this discovery of mine. You can tech, but you cant get out of certain things. I just discovered a Liu Kang Infinite which is 100% guarenteed regardless of meter. First lets get to the find.

The find is 111 jumpover. By jumping over your opponent allows you to juggle them with their back facing you. Why is this important you ask? Because ANY time you try to tech YOU CANT MOVE IN ANY DIRECTION. The only time you are able to move is after the tech into whatever attack you decide to do. The reason why its guarenteed is because

1) you cant start teching right away anyway, so if you recover before their first tech frame, then you can continue the combo. even if they begin to tech, youll hit them VERY early as they are rising (remember: they cant move anywhere)

2) you cant start doing an attack ASAP after a tech either. you have to wait till the tech animation is finished, then it lets you attack, during this period of time leads to the recovery setup mentioned above.

with liu scorp and sub you can do 111 then jumpover to start this setup. after that as long as these characters have recovery setups, then its going to lead to some crazy combos. Liu Kang already has an infinite. This is ONLY the begining.

I did not record the infinite, but i recorded the setup for the inf. Ill post the combo, then inf

^^ The new finds not listed in Tom's guide are Run+1 before/after freeze as well as after 111~freeze. Run+1 is untechable in air. The other added new find is adding 11 before jump~1111~throw.

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Lastly, and credit already goes to Tom for listing Sub's slide tech trap/catch. The only thing that is not listed is that the slide must be done from very far away if you want the air combo to be guarenteed as well as using the jumpover glitch that i talked about with Liu kang. The air combo actually catches them either between both tech traps that i listed for Liu Kang as well. Sub, however, does not have an infinite off it. All he can do after the slide is 1111~throw, which ends up doing less damage in the 82%. Still a nice addition to subs game.

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As i learn more about the game i will be able add more. For now i just want to move on to the rest of the roster and see whats up. I already noticed scorp has an easy inf using subs setup, and the spear does ridiculous damage. Scorpion is also as agile as Kung Lao. Way too good.

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